I'm going on a solitary art retreat in a week's time, a house by the sea that I have hired before. Many of you "joined" me via Instagram the last couple of years as I shared my process with you. I'll be doing the same...follow along. 
Preparations have included

• materials list, gathered, sourced in advance - taking nothing I don't need, and plenty of what I do.
• food the week, cooked, frozen, packed with tons of nourishment. It is a remote part of the coast, no chance of popping to the shops.
• getting clear about my "line of enquiry" for the week

Many artists struggle with finding simplicity in their work
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I am fortunate that isn't my experience, but it did take some years to organically find myself here. If you've been alongside me for a while you'll have seen I am taking more and more OUT of the work, exploring what is essential and developing a stronger economical visual language.

A favourite teacher of mine Sally Hirst said to me when we chatted about this recently ..."Well, I've never had anyone ask me to teach them how to create busy work!"

Blinkers and boundaries. 
So much is ahead of us now and I'm feeling excited about my dreaming and scheming for 2024. I've been musing on what 'blinkers and boundaries' I will use to help me focus and reach my goals

No New Year resolutions as such, but guiding principles for my studio practice. Less...

• rushing and hurrying. The work takes the time it takes and is all the better for me being really focused in the present moment.


• things that trigger my negative mindset, the places where I compare myself unfavourably.  In the meantime I continue to care for my own self-esteem in tried and trusted ways.


• writing the long long 'to do' lists...one thing at a time. I will undoubtedly achieve more in this year than I think possible at this point.

The thing about titles...is that they can come to mean more over time.  And that passage of time and reflection can hold more value,  for me at least, and hopefully for the viewer as well.

My latest work, "Beneath the Waves" is a short series of paintings inspired by a swimming holiday I had in Greece in June. I swam long long swims every blue sky day in the turquoise waters around the Ionian Islands. Heaven for me.

​I took an underwater camera and became fascinated by the fragment our of boat, Mowlgi, that I could see underwater.. Its mass, its shape and its contrast to the tiny human forms of my fellow swimmers.

As it happened on the last day I found myself in a local hospital with a burst appendix and needed emergency surgery.  This is six weeks ago now and I am fit and well again.

The title..."Beneath the Waves" speaks not only of the life I saw in the water, and beneath the surface,.....but the joy I feel upon recovery. The body is an amazing thing - it wants to be well - it wants to be healthy - it wants to be happy...And from beneath the waves, from the darkness of the scary hospital time I have come back to the surface with an even deeper appreciation of life. How could I not?​

So, sit with me in the slow lane. The lane where we'll think about all the things that are already good in our lives, our businesses and our families. The things we are grateful for that don't need improving or bettering. 

I mean, 2022 was a good year for me professionally, why would I want to discredit that?

You asked some great questions.....  I put a post on Instagram asking what you might like to read about in my next newsletter, and I though I was going to pick just one topic. But no...i want to answer them ALL, because they were just so interesting to me....

How you sustain your practice?
Like anything in life, I listen to when I’m tired and rest. I make sure I am doing creative work that is truly interesting to me and this feeds me with fresh energy. I get input from my artist friends, through Social Media or even better, in real life. I have a chair in my studio that I can fall asleep in…little naps are the way forward. I do a lot of exercise and I reckon this really helps my stamina.  Most mostly, I am doing what I love, and so the motivation just keeps on coming.
 
Source material and all those bits of inspiration that accumulate... What do you do with all the photos, ideas and snippets that inspire you but don't feed directly into your work at the time?
For me, it is the noticing what inspires me that is important and not so much the keeping of that information, though believe me, I had a ton of photos on my phone! It all feeds into my work, and I just trust the process. I tend to work in a series with a focussed brief in mind – some words that direct me, and I will have visual references that support and stimulate those ideas. These visual prompts are close at hand on the studio wall.

Hope you found them interesting - would love to know what you think...

How does vulnerability and art go together then?
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​Been thinking about this a lot recently and trying to get my thoughts into bit size pieces. 

So here's my experience. I used to be a psychotherapist and I would feel most connected to my clients when they took the risk to share something new and true for themselves. Perhaps a feeling they hadn't expressed before, or a thought, or a wish they had. I still remember how heart warming and opening some sessions were...for both of us.

And so in my art practice....I am exploring new ground, bringing out what I didn't know was there, not knowing quite where it'll take me or what I'll feel about what goes down on the paper or panel. It's all a risk, and I like it this way.

This sense of aliveness shows up in my work for sure, and I think this is what makes it appealing or attractive to my viewers and buyers. They're not getting pre-meditated, "been there before" work. They are getting art that is authentic, genuine, born out of stepping into the unknown. And that's a shared experience.. 

​What do you think?

It's the NOT knowing where I'm going that directs me...

If I fix my eye on the prize, the outcome, the perfect thing in the future I'll miss out on so many possible riches along the way. And I'll get stressed into the bargain too, trying, striving and pushing to MAKE IT WORK!

​Oh that's a horrible feeling. Do you know it too?

Thankfully, one of the key ingredients of being an artist is to NOT know, to hang out in the DON'T know place and get more and more comfortable with it. I have to get lost, to not have a map, and not to plan where I'm going.

However, I do get REALLY clear about what I'm doing in the here and now. I need to have a "line of enquiry" as I like to call it. So I might have some guidelines I am working to - like in my current printmaking for example...

• looking at shapes
• how to they meet / not meet
• overlaying shapes to let new unplanned shapes appear

Notice, they are words of travel not destination.

The outcomes will take care of themselves and they will be all the richer, more unique and ultimately more interesting as a result.

Solo without the FOMO - my Solitary Art Retreat
A week with no distractions, a sea view, and a studio all to myself. Heaven. I went to the North Wales coast, to a favourite place - where a tidal river meets the sea, and the beach stretches for miles.

Each day I walked on the beaches with RubyDog and then worked in my studio - responding to the lines and shapes of the boats and coast. Having brought limited materials with me, and a focus for my exploring, I could dive right into developing new ideas and outcomes.

I became more and more delighted by the sweeping curves of the boats, and I used my photos to inform the prints I was making. I cut stencils and used them in my printmaking. Every shape was a found shape... collected only that very morning.

It was like cooking with the freshest of ingredients

Although I was on my own I didn't feel any FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) because I was so engrossed in my own world, which was hugely enjoyable and satisfying to me. Being alone helped me quieten my mind,  focus and be incredibly productive. I hadn't set out with any goal in mind - I really wanted just time to play......but I did end up producing a lot of great prints.  I'll be making these available to buy in due course.

Are you thinking of doing something similar - a Solitary Art Retreat?

Perhaps this checklist might help  you plan - here's what worked for me...

• Decided before what my focus was going to be.
• Purchased what I needed in time
• Bought with me limited materials but a huge stash of paper
• Took out accidental damage insurance in case …
• Floor protection down straight away
• Pre made healthy meals and froze them
• Bought enough food for the week, not planning on going shopping!
• Helpful things I also brought / folding table / extension cables / laptop and HDMI cable for TV (checked before what kind of TV it was – not a smart one. Unwinding with Netflix is essential for me / washing line / pegs to dry prints, but the rental had a folding clothes airer which was even better / mount for holding camera for studio filming / going “live” on IG.
• Booked it for the same week next year, going straight to the owner and getting a better deal (for both of us, cutting out the holiday cottage company)
• Met the owner after – who may now buy work for the property. 

eat like an artist...
I mean, how do I creatively nourish myself, how do I feed the studio process? Much in the same way any healthy person would look after themselves - lots of variety of fresh food stuffs, not too much of the quick fix sweet stuff, and really importantly,  taking time to digest, and to wait for the hunger to return.

​And when it does arise, asking now, what do I want, rather than standing staring at the open fridge.

I've spend the last three months concentrating on this feeding process and I can honestly tell you that I feel really creatively healthy as a result. I've just begun working now on some paintings and the creative juices are flowing really well.

​ I had four 24 x 24 cm panels that I laboured over before Christmas - didn't like them but I had pushed on and on. This week I painted over them, obliterating all those layers and hours.

​Goodbye. 

​And low and behold, four stunning pieces appeared so easily as a result. Because I had good ingredients in my creative fridge. I wasn't hungry and I was feeling full and satisfied, and out came the work.

Inspired by Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice crashing about outside the studio. I'm going to boldly frame these in black.

I need to listen to my responses in the studio, to hear and feel those moments when I go "Hey, i like this mark / colour / shape" I need to develop my sense of discernment for what I like.....not in a strict controlling way, but like an encouraging adult asking me to enjoy being me and to find more of that me and bring it forward into the work.

So, take time to feed yourself well. Really well.